On this day in history: March 24, 1692: Dorothy “Dorcas” Good is arrested on charges of witchcraft. She is four years old.

On this day in history: March 24, 1692: Dorothy “Dorcas” Good is arrested on charges of witchcraft. She is four years old. 

Daughter of accused “witch” Sarah Good, who had been arrested on charges of witchcraft along with Sarah Osbourne and Tituba, Dorothy would often go door-to-door with her homeless mother, begging for scraps of food. Sometimes people in Salem Village showed kindness, but other times, they would slam the door in their faces. Sarah Good was known to walk away, muttering under her breath or shaking her fist in the air. This would later be used against her as “witchcraft”.

Accused by 12 year old Ann Putnam, “Dorcas” was she was taken custody on March 24, and was interrogated (“brought to question”) by the local magistrates for two weeks. “Hungry, cold and missing her mother, Dorcas broke down and told the inquisitors what they wanted to hear, that her mother was a witch, consorted with the devil, and also that her mother had given her a snake that bit her. She was delivered to the Boston jail, but as the jails overflowed with the accused, she and her mother were transferred to the Ipswich jail.”

Ann Putnam, Jr’s deposition is as follows:

“I saw the Apparition of Dorothy Good, Sarah Good’s daughter who did immediately almost choke me and tortured me most grievously: and so she hath several times since tortured me by biting and pinching and almost choking me, tempting me also to write in her book, and also on the day of her examination, the Apparition of Dorothy Good tortured me during the time of her Examination and several times since.”

Her mother, Sarah, gave birth in prison to a baby girl she named Mercy. Perhaps she thought she would be shown some mercy by the courts. She wasn’t. On July 19, 1692, Sarah Good was hanged as her daughter Dorcas was held in prison. 

“Dorothy Good was in custody from March 24, 1692 until December 10, 1692. She was never charged, but was kept in the cold Ipswich jail until her her poor father managed to gather up £50 for Dorothy’s bail and “board.” By that time, the child suffered from grave psychological damage that would destroy the rest of her life. By some historic accounts, she had become insane.”